Auction experiment: The auction procedure was a modified version
of a standard Becker-Degroot-Marshack (BDM) experimental
auction mechanism (Becker, De Groot, & Marschak, 1964). In order
to make instructions more understandable for participants, the
random selling price usually used in BDM was replaced by the
Table 1
Sociodemographic and wine consumption habits of participants.
Total
participants
(%)
Gender Female 60.4
Male 39.6
Age 18–24 20.8
25–34 35.4
35–44 20.8
45–54 4.2
55–64 14.6
P65 4.2
Education General certificate of
secondary school
6.3
Baccalaureate
Advanced certificate of
secondary school
22.8
Bachelor degree 6.3
Graduate certificate 64.6
Nationality French 93.8
Not french 6.2
Region of origin Burgundy 91.7
Not Burgundy 8.3
Frequence of wine consumption Never 4.2
Occasionaly 14.6
Every fortnight 14.6
Every week 54.0
2–3 times per week 6.3
>3 times per week 6.3
Regular purchase place Supermarket, wine shop 46.8
Winery 22.9
Restaurant 16.9
Bar or pub 5.2
Tasting room in winery 2.7
Internet 0.9
Wine club 0.5
Other 4.1
Last purchase This week 25.0
Forthnight ago 33.3
This month 10.4
Two months ago 12.5
Three months ago 4.2
> three months ago 14.6
Type of wine consumed Red wine 40.4
White wine 25.1
Champagne 15.1
Rosé wine 7.9
Other 11.5
Wine involvement Low 18.8
Medium 70.8
High 6.2
Expert 4.2
More than 6 bottles of wine at
home for ageing
Yes 62.5
No 37.5
46 M.-P. Sáenz-Navajas et al. / Food Quality and Preference 27 (2013) 44–53
average auction price during a day, but in order to have strategic
manipulation of prices, the initial endowment was kept uncertain
for participants.
Before accessing to the ‘‘wine shop’’ participants were given
both oral and in written instructions together with an envelope
containing their initial endowment (from 0 to 14€, the actual
amount of money was not disclosed until the end of the task), they
were explained that they were going to participate in a wine auction.
For that purpose they will have to (i) evaluate several wines
by means of bottle examination with no tasting, (ii) choose a total
of five bottles which seemed of good quality and (iii) indicate the
maximum price they were willing to pay for each of the five
bottles they chose knowing that the bottles would be sold at a
random selling price calculated as the mean of all the bids for each
bottle. The specific instructions given to participants were the
following: